Kitabatake

The Kitabatake were a feudal Japanese samurai clan from Ise Province in southern Central Honshu,

History
The Kitabatake of Ise province were descended from the Emperor Murakami (926-967), a member of the Fujiwara family. They were ardent supporters of Emperor Go-Daigo during the early Nambokucho Period, led as they were by the imperial loyalist Kitabatake Chikafusa. They remained loyal to the Southern Court throughout the Nambokucho and were influential in the Kinai region into the Sengoku Period. This branch of the Kitabatake was descended from Chikafusa's son Kitabatake Akiyoshi. They ruled an area in Ise province around present-day Ano and Tsu.

In the Sengoku Period, they were allies of the Oda clan, starting when Nobuhide Oda and Harumoto Kitabatake forged an alliance in 1545, and they proceeded to remain allies even after Nobunaga Oda took them under his wing in 1569. They were eventually supplanted and absorbed into the Oda clan.